Roof of the World
by The Plaid Slytherin
Summary: Ten/Jack/Rose. AU. The Doctor takes Rose and Jack mountain-climbing, but they get more than they bargained for when they hear that a mysterious creature has been scaring climbers away.
1. Chapter 1

**Roof of the World **by The Plaid Slytherin

* * *

**Notes: **Thanks to LadyChi for the beta! AU after Parting of the Ways. This works perfectly well as a standalone, but is meant to take place in the series that started with A Different Invasion.

* * *

"Rise and shine, you two! We've got places to go, things to see—you should look outside, there's lots of snow. Real snow, not ash."

Groggily, Rose opened her eyes. The Doctor was standing in the bedroom doorway, grinning with too much enthusiasm for a man who never slept.

"What time is it?" she asked, sitting up and yawning.

"Local time is a quarter past ten in the morning." The Doctor sat on the edge of the bed and gave her a kiss. "Which means it's high time we got moving." He leaned over her and kissed Jack on the back of the head.

"That's nice to wake up to," he said, his voice muffled by the pillow. He rolled onto his back to look up at the Doctor and Rose, grinning. "Was that a suggestion?"

The Doctor stood up and headed out of the room. "It _was_ a suggestion—that you two get up and get moving. Oh." He turned when he reached the door. "You're going to need to wear something different—the wardrobe will know."

Jack and Rose exchanged glances.

"Layers!" called the Doctor from the corridor. "Dress in layers!"

When Rose and Jack reached the wardrobe, they found racks and racks of what looked like ski apparel. "Maybe we're in Vail," said Rose, zipping the pink parka the TARDIS had thoughtfully provided for her.

"Skiing would be fun," said Jack. He settled a pair of goggles onto his forehead and tucked the ends of his scarf into his coat.

"Do you ski?" asked Rose as they headed for the control room to find the Doctor.

"Some. I think I've learned six times now? I just keep forgetting how." He grinned. "Hot instructors."

Rose gave him a playful shove as they entered the control room. "You're full of shite, Jack Harkness."

The Doctor didn't look up from the console computer. "My, you're rude in the morning." He punched a final sequence of buttons and then looked up at them. "Ready?"

"Aren't you going to change?" asked Rose.

"Oh, that's right! I nearly forgot." The Doctor took his coat from the railing and put it on. "See?" he said when Rose looked at him quizzically. "Layers! Layers are good. Now let's go."

He grabbed Jack's and Rose's gloved hands with his bare ones and dragged them out of the TARDIS. As soon as she stepped out of the protective field of the ship, Rose was hit by an incredible wave of nausea. She let go of the Doctor's hand and dropped to her knees, overcome by dizziness. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that the same was happening to Jack. She felt the Doctor's hand grabbing hers and pressing something into it.

"Put this on," he said. "Oh, here." The Doctor grabbed her head to steady it and shoved something in her nose. Almost instantly, her symptoms subsided and she pushed herself into a sitting position. A few feet away, the Doctor was sticking another pair of what looked like swim plugs into Jack's nose.

"What the hell was that?" he asked, taking the Doctor's hand and standing.

"Altitude sickness." The Doctor helped Rose to her feet, too. "Sorry about that. I meant to give these to you when we were still in the TARDIS—she was protecting you. They're oxygen distributors. You should be all right now."

"Where are we?" asked Rose, wiping her hands on her trousers.

The Doctor grinned. "Guess?" he asked, waving at the scenery around them. Rose turned slowly, surveying the area.

"Oh my God," she gasped. The TARDIS was parked in a crevice between two large rocks against an enormous mountain. Rose took several steps back but she still couldn't see where the top was.

Jack joined her. "Now _that_ is impressive," he said.

"_That_ is Chomolungma!" The Doctor exclaimed, leaping over to join them. "Also known as Mt. Everest. Tallest mountain on planet Earth, if you're measuring from the base, that is. Otherwise, it's Mauna Kea, which doesn't have exactly the same ring. Though it does have scuba diving. We'll have to do that next time, hm?" He paused when he realized Rose and Jack weren't listening to him, too taken in by the impressive view. "Right," he continued. "Roof of the world. And see? Plenty of real snow, too." He knelt and patted it.

"We're going to climb _that_?" said Rose numbly, still staring at the mountain.

"Hm? Oh, yes, indeed we are." He pulled the psychic paper out of his coat pocket. "Once we get ourselves attached to a group with the necessary permits. We're geologists, apparently. Let's go. We shouldn't be too far from base camp." He offered his hands to Rose and Jack once more and off they went.

They walked along the base of the mountain for almost two hours. Even with the clothes the TARDIS had provided, which Rose guessed were made of some material not found on Earth, it was still very cold.

"Are you sure you're all right?" she asked the Doctor, pulling her goggles down over her eyes to combat the glare off the snow.

"Who, me? Oh, yeah." He thumped his chest. "Binary vascular system. Quite useful in high altitudes. But…" He paused and pulled a pair of sunglasses out of his pocket. "Now that's better," he said, slipping them on.

"How much farther?" Jack asked.

"Shouldn't be too much longer to base camp," said the Doctor as they rounded a corner. "I tried to set her down—" He froze.

"What?" Rose looked up.

Not twenty yards ahead of them lay the remains of a camp. It looked as though it had been abandoned in a hurry. Tents were collapsed or left unzipped, some even looking as though they had been torn apart and ransacked, their contents scattered across the snow.

"What?" said the Doctor in shock. He marched through the campsite, picking through the debris. "This is 2029, start of the big mountaineering boom. New technology, political change—it all opened up high-altitude trekking to the masses." He kicked a pile of shredded tent material. "But where is everyone?"

Rose knelt by a cylinder lying in the snow. "They left their oxygen tank," she said. "That means they must've gone back down, yeah?"

Jack shielded his eyes and looked up at the face of the mountain. "Looks like it. They couldn't go up without supplies."

The Doctor began digging through the detritus. "If I can find _us_ some supplies, we can go looking—up or down."

"Don't we want to avoid having whatever happened to them happening to us?" asked Rose.

"That would be ideal," said the Doctor, winding up a length of rope he'd found. "But if those people are in trouble, we should help them."

"Weather looks all right," said Jack. "We could try going up." He hefted a pick-axe and hooked it to his belt. "It's been a while since I did any ice-climbing, though."

"The TARDIS's weather forecast said it would be clear for several days," said the Doctor thoughtfully. "We could try to make a run for the top on our own."

"Or we could ask him." Rose pointed and the Doctor and Jack turned. A low concrete building stood several yards away from them, so well-hidden in the shadows of the mountain that she hadn't noticed it until that moment. It was surrounded by electric fencing with enormous warning signs in six languages placed every few feet and the roof of the building was covered with antennae and other equipment. There was a man looking at them through a window. As soon as he saw Rose pointing, he shut the blinds roughly.

"Well," said the Doctor, moving toward the compound, his coat flapping in the wind. "What say we have a little chat with the locals?" Jack and Rose followed him up to a security panel which had been affixed to the fence.

The Doctor leaned on the intercom. "Hello." He gave the camera a little wave. "We're just passing through and were wondering if you could tell us where everybody is." There was a long silence. "Look, we know you're in there. We can see you at the window."

There was a crackle of static over the intercom and a voice said, "Who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor and this is Rose and Jack." He waved the psychic paper in front of the camera.

There was another long pause before the voice said, "What university are you with? Didn't they tell you all expeditions have been cancelled?"

"Yeah, well." The Doctor scratched the back of his head. "We're not really with a university. We're more of freelance geologists."

"I really shouldn't let you in. It's just me and Cheryl up here. We're waiting for reinforcements."

Jack leaned over to the intercom. "What do you need reinforcements for?"

There was an audible sigh. "If you don't even know that… I might as well let you in, you'll get yourselves eaten."

There was a buzz and the lock clicked. The Doctor pushed the gate open and led the way through. Rose paused before she shut it, looking back at the ruins of the camp.

"They're sure worried about something," muttered Jack. There was another buzz as the fence re-electrified.

"What d'you reckon they think's going to break in?" Rose wondered, as they headed toward the building. "All the way up here. Seems like it'd be pretty safe."

"Come on, come on." The man they had been talking to on the intercom was waiting for them at the door, pale and fidgeting nervously. "Get in! You must be freezing. Where on Earth did you come from?"

"Very far away," said the Doctor, sticking his sunglasses in his pocket. "So. Who are you?"

"I should be asking you the same question." He sighed. "I'm Aaron. Aaron Lucas. And this—" He pointed to an auburn-haired young woman who was coming in from another room. "Is Cheryl Tate."

"Oh, honestly, Aaron, can't I leave you alone for five minutes?" Cheryl took a pen from the pocket of her lab coat and thrust it in front of the Doctor's nose. "Sign in here, please. I want a _complete_ record of everything that happened here. Cardiff'll be wanting answers and if everything goes to hell, it isn't my fault."

"Nice to meet you, too." The Doctor took the pen and scribbled something on the paper. Cheryl looked at it quizzically.

"Doctor? Doctor who?"

"Just the Doctor."

Cheryl clicked the pen shut and put it back in her pocket. "Not. My. Fault."

"Tea?" said Aaron quickly. "Anyone up for a cup of tea?"

The Doctor grinned. "Aaron Lucas, I like your style."

* * *

"So," said Rose, warming her hands on her mug of tea. "What are you lot doing up here?" She and Jack had taken off their outer things and despite the great heating system warming the compound, she still felt a slight chill.

Aaron placed a plate of biscuits on the table in front of them. "This is a monitoring station. You know, weather, seismic activity, solar flares. That kind of thing." He smiled at Rose. "I didn't catch your name."

"Oh, it's Rose." She smiled and took a biscuit. "Aaron, right?"

He grinned. "Yeah, Aaron. I'm a… well, I'm not really a climatologist yet." He sat down next to her. "I'm getting practical experience while I work on my thesis. You said you were geologists, right? What's that like?"

"It's real interesting," said Jack sharply, pulling another chair over and parking it squarely between them. He grabbed a biscuit. "Now." He looked pointedly at Aaron. "Where is everybody?"

"Don't you know?" Aaron looked alarmed.

"No," said the Doctor, leaning across the table. "We've been underground—quite literally underground—geologists, remember?"

"It's the Yeti," said Aaron.

"Oh, come on," scoffed Jack, rolling his eyes. "That's just a legend."

"Oh no," said the Doctor with wide eyes. "Last time I ran into the Yeti they were giant... robot... things. Still. Things change. That was... oh, lifetimes ago."

"I didn't believe it at first either," said Aaron indignantly, choosing to ignore the Doctor. "But people have seen it, that's why everyone's gone." He looked down at his tea.

"Look," said Cheryl suddenly. "You can't stay here. What will our bosses think? If we let you stay long…" She shook her head. "You lot can stay for one night but you're starting back down to Lukla in the morning. We can probably spare some supplies. Can't imagine what's happened to yours," she added disapprovingly.

"Yeah, well." The Doctor took a biscuit and examined it. "We lost out gear in a tragic, geological mishap. Now, tell me about your 'Yeti'."

"Well, I haven't seen it," said Aaron.

"That's because it doesn't exist," said Cheryl. "A few weeks ago, a party of climbers started up and never came back. They probably went down in an icefall. When they didn't come back, base camp sent a search party, and _they_ never returned."

"Doesn't that sound a bit suspicious?" prodded the Doctor.

"It's a dangerous climb. This is the most unforgiving landscape in the world. It's hard enough to get up here; you have to be practically suicidal to try for the top."

"But people do," said Rose. "People do it all the time and they're fine."

"Well, that doesn't mean there's a Yeti," said Cheryl, adding lemon to her tea. "Ridiculous if you ask me."

"What happened to the camp?" asked Jack.

"That was a snow leopard," said Cheryl, too quickly. "Almost everyone left after the _icefalls_ killed those two parties, and then a snow leopard got whoever was left." She frowned. "It all happened so fast, by the time it triggered the alarm, it was too late for us to do anything. Didn't stop Patrick from going out there anyway."

The Doctor leaned forward. "Who's Patrick?"

"He was our leader," said Aaron. "But the Yeti got him."

"Oh, shut up about the stupid Yeti," snapped Cheryl.

"Yeah, well what do you think got him? And Annie? She was our wildlife expert, Annie. She went out to gather samples one day and never came back. Broad daylight and she wasn't going fifty feet from the base. I heard this terrible screaming and by the time I got to the monitor, she'd just disappeared."

"She must have slipped, Aaron." Cheryl glared at him.

"What do you know?" Aaron jumped to his feet. "You were down in the memory banks! Something's out there, picking us off one by one, and if Tor—"

"Whoa, whoa," said the Doctor, holding his hands out to keep Aaron and Cheryl apart. "Simmer down, everyone. I know we've all got a terrible case of cabin fever but we can't get at each other's throats. Now, Cheryl." He turned to her. She was still scowling at him. "You said something about memory banks. Can I have a look?"

"I thought you were a geologist."

"Oh, yes. Computer geology. It's a growth field."

* * *

Cheryl led them into a room across from the kitchen. The hum of an enormous computer system was audible out in the corridor.

"This is all our tracking equipment," she said, standing beside the doorway with her arms crossed. "And now that you've seen it—out."

"Oh, what harm can I do?" said the Doctor, pulling his glasses out of his suit pocket and slipping them on. He leaned in to examine a screen and tapped a few keys. "I don't know anything about computers."

Jack and Rose joined him on either side, blocking Cheryl's view as the Doctor slid the sonic screwdriver out his pocket and pointed it at the screen. Images began to flicker rapidly. Rose couldn't make them out, but the Doctor seemed to make sense of them.

Cheryl took a step forward. "Doctor? What are you doing?"

"Nothing!" announced the Doctor, standing up and sticking the sonic screwdriver back in his pocket. The computer screen returned to its original state. "Just having a look."

Suddenly, the computer beeped. The Doctor jumped. "Did I do that?" he asked innocently.

Cheryl pushed past him to get to the monitor. The Doctor stood on tiptoes to see over her.

"This is odd," she muttered. "There's a storm coming, but it seems to have come out of nowhere."

"How long can you usually track a storm?" the Doctor asked.

Cheryl tapped a few keys. "When it's at least a hundred miles away. This one seems to be forming right on top of us." She pushed a few more buttons and the radar focused. "Actually, it seems to be about four miles from here. Right where…" She trailed off, after looking over her shoulder to see the Doctor so close. "Listen, you three can't stay in here. I've got work to do. Why don't you ask Aaron to show you were you can stay? You can't go out in this storm."

The Doctor took his glasses off. For a brief moment, Rose thought she spotted a frown there, but it was gone as quick as it had come. The Doctor clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "Well. Rose, Jack, let's go see if old Aaron will show us around this place."

"What is it?" asked Jack as soon as they had left the room.

The Doctor tucked his hands in his pockets. "This place is more than a weather station," he said, his voice low.

"I figured that," said Jack, nodding.

"Then what is it?" asked Rose.

"I don't know." His brows knit. "We should probably have stuck closer to your home time. Or gone somewhere else entirely. That storm shouldn't be here, according to the TARDIS."

"Will the TARDIS be okay out there with the storm?"

"She should. She's been through worse," he said briskly.

They were interrupted by Aaron coming around the corner. "There you are!" he exclaimed. "I've been looking all over for you. You shouldn't go wandering off like that." Aaron smiled at Rose. "It's a big place. You can get lost, if you don't know where you're going."

"Then keep an eye on us," said Jack, a bit of an edge to his voice.

"That's the plan," said Aaron, looking at him. "Come on. I'll show you where you're bunking."

Rose's room was the one that had belonged to Annie the wildlife expert. The room Aaron put the Doctor and Jack in was a disused bunk room. He explained that since the staff was currently so small, each member of the team was given a single room.

"You must be tired after that hike," he said to Rose. "Why don't you rest and I'll call you when dinner's ready?" He seemed very pleased with himself.

"That sounds like a good idea, thanks," she said, smiling.

"Aaron!" Cheryl cried from the lab.

He flushed. "I—I better go. See you." He hurried away.

"Look at you!" said the Doctor, when he was out of earshot. He looked at Jack. "I think our Rose has got an admirer."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Come on, you two." She grabbed their hands and tugged them across the hall into their room.

The room contained four sets of bunk beds and looked as if it had not been used in quite a long time. Everything was covered by a fine layer of dust.

"How many people are supposed to be manning this base?" Jack wondered aloud, surveying the room.

"Something tells me it's been a while since it was running at full capacity," said the Doctor, sitting on the bottom bunk and bouncing a bit. A cloud of dust escaped the mattress and the rusty bedsprings gave loud whines of protest.

"Do you think the Yeti cleared them all out?" Rose asked.

The Doctor frowned. "I don't know. I always thought the Yeti was just a legend… though I have been wrong before." He cocked his head and rubbed the back of his neck. "Once or twice."

"It's not like anything suspicious stopped us before," said Jack, crossing his arms over his chest.

The Doctor looked at him curiously. "What are you talking about, Jack? Aaron told us to sit here and wait. What you're suggesting could get us into quite a bit of trouble."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me this new regeneration doesn't like trouble."

"Oh, no." The Doctor stood up and grinned wickedly. "This new regeneration _loves_ trouble."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes: **Thanks, as always, to LadyChi for the beta!

* * *

After a moment's consideration, during which the Doctor listened to the wall with a stethoscope he'd pulled from his coat pocket, he led them down the hall in the direction opposite the one they'd come in. As they moved away from the labs and living areas, Rose felt a prickling in her spine. The humming of the computer equipment faded and the howl of the wind outside grew louder.

"I wonder why the TARDIS didn't pick up this storm," mused Jack, as if he could read Rose's thoughts.

"Well, the beta monitor's been giving me trouble," said the Doctor, "since _somebody_ fooled with it on Christmas."

Jack raised his hands in a "don't-blame-me" gesture.

"Still odd, though," the Doctor continued. "She's usually quite good about weather." They had come to a pair of fire doors at the end of the corridor. He took out the stethoscope again and pressed it to them, then pointed the sonic screwdriver at the doors and frowned. "Locked."

"Is that the door to the outside?" asked Rose.

The Doctor shook his head. "I don't think so. Seems like there's a big room on the other side… like a warehouse. Rose, how do you feel about heights?"

Before she had time to respond, the Doctor and Jack each grabbed one of Rose's legs and lifted her up to the narrow window above the door.

"Oi! What do you think you're doing?"

"Just look," groaned Jack. "Did you have to pick these boots? The bottoms are really sharp."

Rose grabbed the doorjamb and peered over it. "I can't see anything," she said. "It's dark in there and there's these sort of wires over the window."

"What are you doing?"

Rose tried to turn around and toppled forward.

Cheryl was moving briskly toward them. "Can I see your credentials again?" she asked the Doctor, as he helped Rose to her feet.

"Sure," he said, pulling the psychic paper out his coat and handing it to her. She examined it and handed it back.

"I don't know who you are or what you're trying to pull, but I could have sworn this didn't used to say you were with the Powell Foundation."

The Doctor took a surreptitious glance at the psychic paper. "No," he said. "Definitely with the Powell Foundation. Good foundation, the Powell foundation. Very… geological."

"I'm going to call Cardiff," she said briskly, turning on her heel. "We have a lot of high-security research going on up here and if you're spies from some other institute, I'm reporting you."

"Wait, wait, wait." The Doctor hurried after her and grabbed her arm. "You're right. I lied. I'm a lying liar who lies. I'm… I'm really John Smith. This is… Violet Taylor and James Harper. We just like to travel incognito, occasionally." He looked at Rose and Jack expectantly.

"Yeah," said Rose. "My name's Violet, isn't it, James?"

Jack nodded. "It sure is, Violet."

Glaring, Cheryl yanked her arm away from the Doctor and stalked down the hall. They hurried after her. As they rounded the corner into the corridor that led to the main offices, the lights went out.

Rose yelped as they were plunged into darkness.

"We didn't do that," said the Doctor, even though he couldn't see Cheryl's expression. "I'm not lying now, promise."

"The generator should be coming on," she muttered, ignoring him. "Aaron!"

"Coming!" he called faintly. "I've got some torches!"

"You," said Cheryl sharply. "Don't try to run."

"Where would we go?" muttered Jack. "We can't see either."

A light came bobbing toward them and Aaron handed Cheryl and the Doctor each a torch.

"Have you been to the generators?" Cheryl asked.

"Going there now," said Aaron.

"I'll check the com links." She turned to the Doctor, Rose and Jack. "You three wait in there," she said, pointing to the bunk room.

"Actually," said the Doctor. "I have a bit of mechanical experience, and so does Jack, I mean James. We could help Aaron."

Cheryl frowned but nodded. "Keep an eye on them," she instructed. "You're with me," she said to Rose.

* * *

"Are you sure you don't want to borrow anything?" Aaron asked the Doctor, as he zipped his coat. "It's cold out there. We've got plenty."

"I'm fine," said the Doctor, leaning against the doorframe.

Aaron shrugged. "You're a funny man, Doctor."

Jack grinned and pulled on his gloves. "You've got that right."

Aaron led them out a reinforced storm door on the side of the facility.

"Where's the generator?" Jack yelled over the howl of the wind. He couldn't see anything. The shadow of the mountain, combined with the dark clouds that had rolled in made the spring afternoon as black as midnight. He wiped a hand over his goggles in a vain attempt to clear away the accumulating snow.

"Over here." He could see Aaron's torchlight bobbing to his left, so he headed in that direction. "Be careful of the fence. When we get the generator back up, it'll re-electrify." Jack couldn't even begin to guess where the fence was, so he kept himself pressed against the generator. He reached out and found the Doctor's shoulder. "Do you want to make a run for the TARDIS while the fence is down?" he whispered.

"No. We'd get lost out there and I don't know what they'd do to Rose if we ran off."

"Here!" called Aaron. "Come around here, I can't get the panel open."

Jack and the Doctor inched their way around the generator to Aaron's voice. Jack took the torch from him as he fumbled with the panel.

"Here," said the Doctor, nudging Aaron out of the way and handing him his torch. He pointed the sonic screwdriver at the panel and it swung open.

"Wow," said Aaron. "What's that?"

"Oh, just… Never mind. Jack, give me some more light." Jack moved to stand behind the Doctor and pointed the torch over the Time Lord's shoulder. The Doctor squinted into the panel. "Now that… That is odd," he murmured.

"What?" asked Jack, leaning in over the Doctor's other shoulder.

"There's nothing wrong with the generator, at least not inside it." The Doctor straightened up and shut the panel, turning to look at Jack. "Now, what could be causing our little power problem?"

"How about this rock?" said Aaron. Jack and the Doctor whirled around. Aaron was shining his torch on an enormous boulder, which was rapidly being covered by snow. It had fallen on the power line from the generator, severing it.

"Do you have any other kind of emergency power?" the Doctor asked.

"No," said Aaron.

"Do you think we can reconnect the lines?" asked Jack. He didn't know as much as the Doctor did, but had once dated an electrical technician who had been under the mistaken impression Jack was interested in his work.

The Doctor ran a hand through his wet hair. "We might be able to," he said thoughtfully. "Right. First, we move the boulder. Jack, go 'round to the other side."

"Yessir," said Jack, giving him a quick salute with the torch. He trudged back to the other side of the generator, his way made increasingly difficult by the fact that the snow was now beginning to cover the smaller transformers and lower power lines.

_Definitely requesting someplace tropical next time_, he thought. _Though there is the problem of sand in unpleasant places._

Suddenly, he heard a grating sound. "Doctor?" he called, turning. "Was that you?"

If the Doctor responded, Jack didn't hear him. Aaron's torchlight was also lost in the driving snow. There was another sound behind him, this time of creaking metal. Jack took a deep breath, remembering the techniques he'd learned at the Time Agency to stave off panic. It was probably just the wind. He reached out to his right and realized he'd lost the generator.

"Damn," he muttered, taking a tentative step forward. His foot caught on a snow-covered wire and he went sprawling, dropping his torch. He heard another sound of ripping metal and dug frantically through the snow, looking for the light. There it was! He grabbed it and swung it in front of him. He'd fallen right in front of the fence, so he was close to the perimeter. Jack rolled to his feet, kicking snow away so he wouldn't trip again.

_Follow the fence_, he thought._Just follow the fence to the generator and find the Doctor._

He swung the torch in front of him, trying to gauge the right direction. Suddenly, he froze and felt his stomach drop. There was a hole in the fence. That had been the sound he'd heard. Something had torn right through while it wasn't electrified. "Doctor?" he called. "Doctor!"

Jack heard a thump behind him and whirled around. He had just a second to glimpse the enormous creature in front of him before it grabbed him by the legs. Jack's head slammed hard into the generator and everything went black.

* * *

Rose sighed and rested her head on her hands, hating the uncomfortable silence between her and Cheryl. The electricity was still out and the base's communications were down; the heat had also gone off, too. The cold was beginning to set in, and the howl of the storm outside was making Rose even more worried about the boys. She knew they had fought off much worse in the past, but she would feel much better once they were back inside.

"I don't know what that Doctor Smith thinks he can do to help," Cheryl muttered. "Aaron knows the generator system like the back of his hand." She leveled her eyes at Rose. "You're not trying to sabotage us, are you?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "If we were, do you think I'd admit it?"

Cheryl grunted and looked down at the table. "It's not supposed to do this," she said quietly. "The system's supposed to be foolproof. If we lose power, the generator goes on automatically." She hugged herself, leaning forward. "If it doesn't kick on, we'll die!"

"We won't die," insisted Rose. "The Doctor will know how to fix it, I'm telling you."

Suddenly, the lights flickered back on and the heating system roared to life. Flashing Cheryl a triumphant grin, Rose jumped to her feet and bolted for the entranceway. The Doctor and Aaron were there, shaking the snow off their clothes. She froze, looking behind them for a familiar figure.

"Where's Jack?" she asked accusingly.

The Doctor came toward her and hugged her; she didn't like the grim expression on his face when he pulled away.

"He's gone," he whispered.

She pulled back. "What do you mean gone?" she asked, her voice shaking.

"Missing," said the Doctor quickly, looking away. "Something's dragged him off."

"Well, we've got to get him back!" She grabbed the Doctor's hand. "Come on!"

"Rose, we're not going out there in this storm."

"Bollocks! If Jack's in trouble—"

"—Then we have to help him, yes. But if we go out there now, we won't even know where to look." He closed his eyes. "I don't even know what direction they went in. The snow's already covered up any tracks."

"We're not leaving him alone out there," she said adamantly. "Come on, what do we need?"

"We _need_ to wait until the storm dies down. In the morning we'll—"

Rose shook her head, her voice rising in pitch. "Jack's out there _freezing_ or being eaten and you're—"

"He can take care of himself," said the Doctor quickly. "He knows what he's doing. He's… had plenty of survival training."

"Doctor…" she continued desperately.

"We don't have a choice, Rose," he said, placing his hands on her shoulders. "I promise you, first thing in the morning, we'll go out there and we will get Jack back. I swear."

Rose nodded, blinking back tears. The Doctor hugged her again.

"Was it… the Yeti?" she asked in a hollow voice as he withdrew.

"Oh, don't—" began Cheryl.

Aaron cut her off. "Cheryl, you know what that fence is made out of. Nothing else could get through it." He looked at the Doctor. "Could it?"

The Doctor crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't know. You tell me."

Aaron looked nervous. "Well, I haven't really gone through all of Annie's notes since… since her accident, but I don't think any of the native wildlife could punch through that fence."

"Then maybe we're not dealing with native wildlife," said the Doctor sharply. "Tell me." He looked seriously at Aaron and Cheryl. "What exactly are you doing up here?"

Cheryl's face hardened. "The electricity's back up. I'm calling my superior. I'm in charge until we get reinforcements, and—"

"And the phone will still be down and the computers will take eighteen hours to reboot." The Doctor stuck his hands in his pockets and advanced toward her. "Now my friend is out there, in the middle of a storm, with a creature I know nothing about—this is not the same Yeti I've encountered before, I do know that much. Now, I'm suspicious that you know something you're not telling me. Which is all well and good, I'm used to figuring these things out myself. But if something happens to my friend, and you could have helped, I'm going to be very upset."

Cheryl took a step back nervously. "Who are you?" she asked, her voice shaking.

"I'm the Doctor." He turned, his coat snapping. "Come on, Rose. Let's get some rest. First thing in the morning, we're going out there and getting Jack back."

* * *

Jack's eyes snapped open and he sucked in a lungful of air. _That was a rude awakening_, he thought. Wincing, he forced his stiff limbs to cooperate as he pulled himself into a sitting position. He was in some sort of cave, he guessed. It was dark, but the ground was clear of snow. Every muscle in his body was sore. He put a hand to the back of his head. There was blood in his hair, but he couldn't detect a wound or lump.

"Weird," he muttered, slumping back against the wall of the cave. "Hoo boy." Standing felt like too much of an effort, so Jack sat. He rubbed his eyes—he'd lost his goggles somewhere—and tried to think back to the last thing he remembered. There was the Doctor… they were outside… the hole in the fence… the creature! Jack scrambled to his feet, ignoring the wooziness he felt.

He was definitely in a cave. The creature must have dragged him there. The Yeti. Bracing himself against the wall of the cave, Jack crept toward where he guessed the entrance was. It was still dark outside but the storm had died down. He could even see a little in the moonlight, but Jack didn't relish the idea of a trek at night through the snow without any gear.

Sighing, he sat down on a rock. _May as well run some diagnostics_, he thought, and tapped some buttons on his wrist unit. The cave was more-or-less ordinary, except for the unusually high levels of cyclic radiation. What was radiation doing in a cave in the high Himalayas? That didn't make any sense. Jack rested his chin on his hand. This wasn't stuff that occurred naturally, at least not on Earth.

Had something contaminated the cave and the creature? Could it have been that research station? Jack quickly ran a few more scans to get more information to share with the Doctor later, but nothing else stood out to him as strange.

Suddenly, he heard movement in the mouth of the cave. It was the Yeti. The moonlight provided Jack's first good look at the creature that had abducted him—on purpose, he now thought, as it hadn't already eaten him.

It was apelike and tall—twice as tall as Jack—and covered in matted black hair. The stench was almost overpowering, and its eyes... they glowed red. It caught Jack in its gaze and he felt his knees go weak. "Not again," he muttered.

_The most intense feelings of loneliness were washing over him. He'd been alone for so long, and now that he had the Doctor and Rose, it was all being taken away from him. He didn't deserve to be happy, he'd done too many terrible things. The Doctor and Rose were leaving him behind. The TARDIS was dematerializing, but he would never make it in time. They knew what he'd done and it disgusted them. There was no point in living anymore._

Jack's knees gave out and he slumped onto the floor of the cave, the Yeti leaning over him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes:** This is the end of this story, but there's another one coming up soon. I hope you've enjoyed it. Again, thanks to LadyChi for the beta.

* * *

The Doctor and Rose set off at first light. The storm had passed, but the snow was much deeper than it had been yesterday, which made their way difficult. The Doctor spent a lot of time studying the hole in the fence.

"I think they went… that way," he said, pointing to the east. He pulled something out of his coat pocket and swung it in an arch in front of him. It was beeping quietly.

"What's that?" Rose asked.

"It's a... well… let's just say it's a Jack detector." The beeping grew louder and more persistent. "Come on!" The Doctor took off in the direction of the beeping, Rose at his heels. They hiked for quite some time, but not as long as it had taken them to get to the base from the TARDIS. The previous day felt like ages ago to Rose.

"We'll find him," said the Doctor, answering her unasked question. "He'll be fine." Rose bit her lip.

Suddenly, the Doctor stopped and pointed. "There," he whispered, pulling Rose down behind a snow bank. "That cave. I think he must be in there."

"And what about the Yeti? Is it in there, too?"

"Well, we'll just have to find out, won't we?" He crept out from behind the snow bank and darted toward the cave. Rose followed.

Tentatively, they peered into the entrance. There was no sign of the creature, and lying sprawled about twenty feet from the entrance was Jack. They both sprinted to his side.

"Jack," said Rose tentatively, touching his shoulder. Jack groaned.

"Don't try to move," said the Doctor, kneeling beside him. "We're here." He placed a hand on Jack's forehead. "What happened?"

"It grabbed me and dragged me off," he said, as the Doctor eased him into a sitting position. Rose slipped an arm around his waist. "I was out for a couple hours, did a number on my head. I must have some lump."

The Doctor gently touched the back of Jack's head. Rose thought she caught a brief look of grim resignation flash across his face.

"How is it, Doc?" Jack asked wryly.

The Doctor ruffled Jack's hair and pressed a kiss to his temple. "You'll live," he said.

"Have you seen it since?" Rose asked.

Jack frowned. "I don't really remember," he murmured. "It came back after I woke up—I ran some scans. This place is full of radiation. It's like a cyclical reactor!" He began tapping buttons on his wrist unit and showed the readout to the Doctor. The Doctor frowned and took out his sonic screwdriver.

"Jack, try to remember, what did it do when you woke up?"

Jack frowned. "It _looked_ at me." He gave an involuntary shudder. "That's all I remember—it looked at me." He shook his head. "I saw something. It was an illusion, it must be some kind of telepath." Gripping the wall of the cave, he pulled himself to his feet. "Let's get out of here. I don't want to be around when it comes back."

"Don't move too fast," said the Doctor quickly. "Your brain's just had the shock of its life. Synapses firing like mad. Now tell me. What did you see?"

Jack shook his head. "It doesn't matter. Come on." Leaning on the Doctor and Rose, Jack was able to hobble toward the mouth of the cave. They were nearly outside when a shadow fell over them.

"Ah, crap," muttered Jack.

"Don't look at it!" shouted the Doctor. His voice seemed very far away… fading… falling.

_Lonely, so lonely. She would never be happy again. They hated her—Jack and the Doctor. They didn't need her; they had each other. She was just slowing them down, with her twenty-first century stupidity. And even if she went home, her mother and Mickey wouldn't take her back; she'd been too many places and seen too much. She was trapped between two worlds, not welcome in either. All she wanted to do was die. _

"Rose!" The Doctor's voice was suddenly close. He jammed his sunglasses onto her face. "Stay with me, Rose. Don't look at it!"

Rose blinked. The Yeti was standing before them, but Rose felt… nothing. She reached up to touch the sunglasses.

"Keep those on," said the Doctor urgently. "The lenses, they're made of an argon composite. It dampers the psychic field." He tightened his grip on Jack's shoulders, pressing him to him. "Don't look," he repeated. "What you saw before, that was how it hunts. It's a sympath."

"A _what_?" asked Jack, his voice muffled by the Doctor's coat.

"A sympath."

"Why isn't it bothering you?" asked Rose.

"Because it's not adjusted to me. It thinks I'm human, so it's hitting me with human wavelengths. I feel it, but not as strongly as you two. Now, come on. Let's get out of here before it figures out."

"It's not going to chase us?" asked Rose, as they stumbled out of the cave.

"Not if I do this." The Doctor whirled, and pointed the sonic screwdriver at the cave. An earsplitting whine filled the air, causing Jack and Rose to cover their ears. The rocks, snow and dirt above the cave trembled and then fell, raining down on the entrance. "That should buy us some time. Now, run!" The Doctor and Rose grabbed Jack and hurried away from the cave as fast as they could. It was exhausting supporting him, but they moved faster the more strength Jack regained.

"So I take it that's not really the Yeti?" asked Jack.

"Well." The Doctor shrugged. "It _is_ the Yeti, in a way. But it's really a sympath—a Dondolarian."

"A Dondolarian?" Jack looked bewildered. "I thought those were a myth."

"Funny coincidence—you thought the Yeti was a myth, too."

Jack scowled. "So that means it was trying to kill us."

"Wait, hold on," said Rose. "What's a Dondo-whatever?"

"Dondolarian. It's a sympath. That's the opposite of an empath. Instead of feeding on other peoples' emotions, a sympath feeds on offloading their emotions onto others. Imagine if every emotion you ever felt—every tiny disappointment, every simple pleasure—was magnified by a thousand." They were within sight of the base now and the Doctor quickened his pace. "Now, if all your emotions are magnified by a thousand, imagine what it must feel like to be more keenly alone than anyone has ever felt."

Rose gasped. "You'd die."

"Exactly. A sympath needs to disperse its emotions, give them to others or else the frustration of a broken nail could kill it." The Doctor pointed the sonic screwdriver at the makeshift gate closing off the hole the Yeti had made in the fence and marched right through it.

"But I felt like dying," said Rose. "When it looked at me, I wanted to die."

"That's how it feeds," said the Doctor grimly. "The Dondolarians were meant to live in a symbiotic relationship with the Kamal Rhu. They were an empathic race, feeding off emotions. They lived on twin planets in the western arm of the Qual Galaxy. Perfect arrangement, worked for billions of years. Until humans entered the picture." He looked pointedly at Jack.

"Hey," he said, "that wasn't my fault, it was before my time."

The Doctor ignored him. "The Kamal Rhu lived on a planet rich in minerals. Very lucrative site for expansion mining. They were all wiped out in a matter of decades. And the Dondolarians had no one to feed off."

Rose's eyes widened. "So they came here?"

"They scattered, in time and space, looking for victims. They changed, became emotion-mad monsters. Non-empathic species weren't equipped to take the emotional overload; the Dondolarians became killers. And gradually, they all died, hunted down for what they'd done. Except, apparently for one." The Doctor paused. "That creature is the loneliest being in the universe. Imagine what it would be like. All you need is someone else to share the pain with, and fate brings you to the loneliest spot in the world." He swallowed hard.

"It got you, didn't it?" asked Rose gently.

The Doctor shook his head. "It didn't. Because I know how it feels."

* * *

Aaron and Cheryl didn't seem to have expected the three of them to come back at all.

"Wh-what are you doing?" stammered Cheryl as the Doctor burst through the front doors, Jack and Rose on either side. "I thought you'd been killed!"

"What's back there?" the Doctor asked, ignoring her questions. He was striding down the hallway with that look in his eyes that both frightened and excited Rose as she hurried to keep up. He was heading for those doors at the end of the hall, the ones they had been unable to open. "What are you keeping in there?"

He gave the doors a hard shove, but Cheryl blocked his way. "You're not authorized," she said importantly.

"Cheryl." The Doctor looked at her seriously. "Cheryl. Don't you want to know what killed your friends? Don't you want to know what's been killing all those people?"

Cheryl hesitated, but Aaron stepped in front of her. "I do," he said, pulling a ring of keys out of his pocket. "Here."

Cheryl turned on him. "What are you doing? Aaron, you'll be sacked!"

"I don't care," he said, his voice shaking. He marched up to the doors and unlocked them. "I want to know what killed them." He looked at the Doctor. "Can you find that out?"

"Oh, Aaron Lucas. I can and I will." He pushed the doors open. "Come on." He bounded through, Jack and Rose at his heels. After a moment's hesitation, Aaron glanced at Cheryl and followed them. When the doors closed, they were plunged into darkness.

"Lights," murmured the Doctor, "I need lights." Rose heard the sound of the sonic screwdriver and the lights flickered on. They were in an enormous warehouse-like room, packed floor-to-ceiling with boxes. However, the Doctor made a beeline for the large object in the center of the room. It was covered with a white sheet, which he yanked off, revealing a silver pod. It was about eight feet in diameter and lacked any visible entrance.

"Aha!" He took several steps back and looked at Aaron. "You found its ship. No wonder it's attacking you."

"That's been there forever," said Aaron. "They brought it in before I worked here. Patrick must have done it, or maybe even the team that was here before us."

"I've never seen a ship like that," remarked Jack.

The Doctor slipped his glasses on and leaned in closer. "Yeah, I'm not surprised. This isn't something you run across every day. It's similar to the TARDIS in a way." He pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and pointed it at the ship. He frowned. "Can't get it open. It'll need to do that itself."

"So what are we going to do?" asked Rose.

The Doctor took his glasses off. "We are going to give our Dondolarian friend his ship back."

"How?" asked Jack. "Can't exactly move it, can we?"

"No," said the Doctor thoughtfully. He straightened up. "We can't. But the TARDIS can. Aaron! Can you get those doors to the outside open?" Aaron sprang into action.

"Brilliant!" cried the Doctor. "Right. I'm going for the TARDIS. You lot get back inside."

"No way," said Rose. "We're not leaving you alone with that thing."

"Trust me, I'll be fine." He darted out the door.

Rose and Jack exchanged glances. Jack grinned. "I love it when he plays hard to get," he said, and they ran after him, Aaron on their heels.

The Doctor frowned as they caught up to him. "I thought I told you to stay inside."

"You did," said Jack. "We chose not to listen."

"That thing tried to kill us," said Rose. "We're not letting it do the same to you."

"Well, be careful," said the Doctor. "Dondolarians are smarter than they look. I ran into some years ago, back when… back before the Time War."

"What happened to them?" asked Jack.

The Doctor rubbed his face. "They died," he said finally. "My… my friend, he killed them. They were killing people. He didn't have a choice. So he killed them." The Doctor stuck his hands in his pockets. "I'm not going to let that happen this time."

The four of them walked in silence for a long time.

"Cheryl's going to kill me," said Aaron finally. "When I get back. Going to be sacked anyway, so it doesn't matter."

"You could come with us," said Rose conversationally. "We go all sorts of places. You'd love it out there."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Rose, do you remember what happened the last time I let you keep one of your strays?"

"Are you talking about me?" asked Jack.

"Stop," said the Doctor suddenly. "It's close."

He had the thing he'd used to track Jack down out and was holding it in front of him. "Just around this corner." He reached over to Rose and pulled the sunglasses back down over her eyes. "Concentrate on not looking at it," he told Jack and Aaron.

"Why?" asked Aaron. "What's it do?"

"It's a telepath," said Jack. "It's got hypnotic ability. If you get a glimpse of it, it'll force you to make eye contact. That's when it overloads you with emotions until..." Jack trailed off, his gaze not meeting Rose's.

Aaron paled. "So Patrick… and Annie, they…"

"It made them feel so bad that they couldn't... just couldn't live anymore," said Rose softly. She remembered what it had made her see, the illusion of rejection she'd experienced as she'd watched the Doctor and Jack choose each other over her. Aaron looked frightened, but he did not turn back.

Suddenly, they turned the right corner and saw it. The Yeti was crouching in front of the TARDIS, blocking their way to it.

"What's that?" asked Aaron. "A phone box?"

"Don't look," the Doctor reminded him. Aaron turned away. The Doctor stepped forward calmly, his hands in his pockets. Rose could see Jack's face contorting; she reached out and tangled her fingers with his.

The Yeti stood up when it saw the Doctor. "Oh, no," said the Doctor quietly. "Your trick's not going to work on me." The Yeti paused, confused. "Yes, that's right. Your wavelengths are all wrong for me." He waved his hands around his head. "You're after humans and I'm not one."

"What?" said Aaron. "You're not human?" The Doctor, Rose and Jack ignored him. The Yeti let out a terrifying roar. Dark clouds began to gather above their heads.

"Oho!" crowed the Doctor. "You're a weather manipulator! I'd never heard that. Well. That explains everything, really. The TARDIS wasn't malfunctioning. I owe someone an apology." He glanced over his shoulder. "Sorry, Jack. I assumed it was something you did."

"No problem," said Jack weakly. Rose tightened her grip on his hand.

"Now, listen," said the Doctor to the Yeti. "This planet isn't yours to feed from! You have to listen to me, I can help!" His words were being lost in the howling wind. Snow began to fall around them. "I know where your ship is. People have taken it but you can't blame an entire species for the actions of a few. I can help!"

The Yeti charged. Rose screamed and Jack shoved her to the side. The Yeti grabbed the Doctor with both hands and lifted him.

"I understand your pain!" the Doctor screamed over the twin howls of the storm and the creature. "I know what it's like to be the last of your kind."

The Yeti hesitated.

"Yes, that's right," said the Doctor. Jack pulled Rose to her feet, but he kept her pressed against himself.

"You're feeling okay?" she whispered to him.

"Yeah," he replied. "I'm not getting any more emotional feedback."

"Yes," the Doctor was saying. "I get it. I can help. I understand. Come on." The Yeti gently set him back on the ground. "Yes, that's right. I know what it's like. I'm alone, too. I'm a Time Lord."

The Yeti let out a tremendous roar.

"Stop it!" screamed the Doctor. "We meant you no harm!"

Rose was hit by a powerful wave of despair.

_The Time Lords were a threat, they killed without mercy. They were ruthless and cruel, power-mad, insane, murderers of a helpless, gentle race. _

She stumbled, falling against Jack as they struggled to keep each other upright as they were inundated with the waves of feelings.

_She saw fire and water and blood, bright light and falling, two lines snaking away from her in the darkness. There was no way out, no reason to continue. _

Rose and Jack stumbled toward the edge. She was half-conscious of the stones her feet knocked loose and how far they fell, but all she could see was the pain. She pulled free of Jack's grip and she fell.

Suddenly, someone grabbed her wrists. It was Jack.

"Hang on, Rose," he said. "I've got you."

She blinked, trying to remember what had happened. She could feel that there was nothing below her feet. Slowly, she turned her head. The ground was thousands of feet away; all she could see below her were jagged rocks and sheer ice. Rose screamed.

"Calm down!" said Jack urgently. He was holding on to her wrists. "Come on." Aaron's face appeared beside Jack's and together they pulled Rose to safety.

"What happened?" she asked, collapsing against Jack in relief.

"The connection broke," he said, pulling her into his arms. "Look."

Rose squinted through the driving snow. The Yeti may have been forced to break its psychic connection with them, but it still had control of the weather. It was advancing on the Doctor, who was standing calmly before it, his expression grim.

"I gave you a chance," he said, his voice low and dangerous. "I gave you a choice." He was slowly backing away as the Yeti advanced. "I understand you've been hurt, your people have been hurt. The Time Lords are gone now. The one who hurt you is gone now. You've nothing to fear."

The Yeti lunged and the Doctor twisted away from its claws at the last second. "You can't see anything but your rage," he said sadly. Slowly, he backed away from the Yeti. "I know how you feel. You've lost every other member of your species, every other being that could even begin to understand what it means to be you." The Yeti advanced on him and he continued backing away. "Your grief has turned you into a monster!" cried the Doctor. "Can't you fight it?"

With one last tremendous roar, the Yeti threw itself at the Doctor. Rose screamed. At the last second, the Doctor whipped out the sonic screwdriver and pointed it in the air. Rose couldn't hear the sound it made, but the Yeti was clearly distressed. It staggered this way and that, as the Doctor looked on grimly. Finally, it stumbled to the edge and plummeted into the void.

Rose realized she'd been holding her breath and let it out with a gasp.

"What did he do?" she whispered.

"What he had to," said Jack evenly.

"He let it fall," said Aaron softly. "He said he'd help it and he just let it fall."

"It's what he had to do," repeated Jack edgily.

The Doctor walked slowly to the cliff and looked over it. "You were just like me," he said faintly. "A monster driven mad by loneliness. You were just like me." He turned away and headed back to where Rose, Jack and Aaron were standing.

"Oh, hello!" said the Doctor cheerfully, as Rose and Jack ran to hug him.

"Is it really gone?" asked Aaron, from his position, a few feet away.

"Yes," said the Doctor evenly. "It's really gone. It won't hurt anyone anymore." He swallowed. "None of them will."

Aaron nodded. "Right. Well. We should get back." He jerked his head in the direction in which they'd come. "Cheryl," he said by way of explanation. "She'll be worried. Of course, she'll say she wasn't, but I know she's worried."

The Doctor nodded. "Take care, then, Aaron Lucas."

He paused. "You're not coming?"

"This is where we bow out, I'm afraid. Our transport's right over there." He nodded to the TARDIS.

Aaron's mouth dropped open. "You really aren't human! I mean, that's… that's just a phone box."

"It's a spaceship," said Rose, grinning. "And it's bigger on the inside."

"But how?" Aaron asked, as he followed them over to the TARDIS and watched as they stepped inside. "How can it be… blimey, it really is!"

"It would be hard to explain," said the Doctor. "Just watch." He shut the door and went over to the console, pushing the right sequence of buttons to make the TARDIS dematerialize.

Rose leaned against the console and sighed. "Are you okay?" she asked the Doctor.

"Hrm?" He looked up. "Yeah. I'm fine."

"You did what you had to do," said Jack, coming up beside him and putting a hand on the Doctor's shoulder.

"Yeah."

Rose joined them, slipping an arm around the Doctor's waist. "You're not like that, you know," she told him, resting her head on his shoulder. "You're not like that at all. You're not a monster."

The Doctor sighed. "To it, I was. I'm a Time Lord. Time Lords hurt its family. You haven't met very many Time Lords."

She leaned up to kiss his cheek. "Yeah, but the one I have met is pretty brilliant."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "You think so?"

"Oh, yeah," said Jack, his arm going around the Doctor's waist. "Sexy, too."

"Well." The Doctor considered this. "You know, now that I think about it, you humans aren't so bad yourselves." He kissed her, in that way that made her knees go weak, especially when he kissed Jack next.

They stood that way for a while, with their arms around each other as the TARDIS spun through the Vortex. Finally, Rose broke the silence. "So where are we going next?" she asked, cocking her head.

The Doctor leaned over to turn some knobs and then looked back at his companions. "How does 1979 sound?"


End file.
